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Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across college sports. Each week during the college sports season, we will send out polls to plug in fans to each team. Tar Heel fans can sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
In the Cole Anthony-less era of the 2019-20 Carolina basketball team, fans have had a really hard time finding reasons to be excited. If I were to go through each of these reasons, none of you would finish reading this article until the Boston College game was ready to tip off Saturday, so I won’t waste time. Instead, let’s discuss what is currently going right: UNC is now on a two-game winning streak after destroying the Miami Hurricanes and upsetting the NC State Wolfpack. I know, it’s weird to read that game as an upset, and trust me when I say it was even weirder to type it.
With everything looking better for the Tar Heels, let’s take a look at this week’s FanPulse results and how fans are feeling:
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Fans’ confidence rose from 53% to 71% following the two big wins this past weekend. Everything is looking much better for the Tar Heels, as they are getting more guys involved in a positive manner, have been taking advantage of teams in the post, and have looked a little better defensively. Needless to say, the story of the week is that Cole Anthony told the media that he is ready to re-join his brothers on the court, and that he is just waiting for UNC’s medical staff to give him the green light.
As far as whether or not Anthony will come back this weekend, I am putting my money on no. Roy Williams is treating this situation with all of the caution that it requires, and considering the fact that Anthony hasn’t done anything involving contact yet, it’s just hard to see them clearing him prior to Saturday. However, the good news is that the Heels face Boston College at home, a team that is struggling big time in ACC play. Barring anything wild happening — which we all know by now is very possible — Carolina has a good chance of extending their current win streak.
What do you think of this week’s survey results? Is the sunshine finally coming back out in Tar Heel Nation? Or are you refraining from being too optimistic until Cole Anthony returns? More importantly, is Cole returning enough? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, you can sign up for FanPulse if you haven’t already by clicking the link at the top of this article.
Go Heels!